Yoga and Flamenco for Every/body & Mindful Book Reviews By Eve

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Neon The Ninja: Activity Book For Children Who Struggle With Sleep and Nightmares by Dr. Karen Treisman

This book is immediately likable because of Neon, the lovable and trustworthy main character who embodies a heroic persona to bring children struggling with sleep and nightmares a sense of control. Neon is highly engaging and interactive and allows children to feel empowered to be their own super inner-ninja. Neon is the story of a superhero who is emboldened with the power to rid fear, worry and anxiety. This story/activity book is a treasure box of shareable applied practices such as coloring pages, worksheets, art activities, breathing exercises and sentence completion activities. The actives are all very creative and reflective.
Dr. Treisman on accessible creative trauma informed practices for and about children are highly engaging and accessible. I highly recommend this book.
¡Olé Namaste! Eve Costarelli

The Mindfulness Skills Activity Book For Children by Chris Willard, PsyD and Mitch Abblett, PhD. (Illustrations by Kimberly Hermesch, M.Ed.; PESI Publishing and Media)

This book is full of fabulous activities that help connect social emotional learning to mindfulness concepts. I have found it immediately applicable and have already used a number of its offerings: Focus Mountain, Square Fence Breathing, SLOW Stream Floating and Fave Flames, to name a few. I have the awesome opportunity of bringing mindful concepts into school communities, K-12, both in classrooms and with professional development, and it is wonderful to have such a great resource to integrate into my programming. I highly recommend this book. The activities are engaging and accessible and they offer a great jumping off point to dig deeper.

¡Olé Namaste! Eve Costarelli

Thank you to Chris Willard for sending me this book. All opinions expressed are my own.

Truly one of the best things about this book, Breath Friends Forever: A Mindfulness Book for Kids by Kids, and its predecessor, Master of Mindfulness: How to Be Your Own Superhero in Times of Stress, is that it is truly for kids by kids. The voices are clear and strong and young. This simple, sweet story, illustrated with a creative collage of cartoon characters and real life photos, offers various ways to remind us to practice mindfulness whenever needed. The hand gestures, the breathing, the getting in touch with inner peace all combine to offer easy-to-follow instructions for calming down during times of big emotions. The nicely written story offers good factual data on how deep breathing affects and effects the body, mind and energy. This mid-grade book respects the curiosity and personage of the older child. The main message is that a friend is the greatest gift: both to give and to receive.

This is a fabulous authentically voiced mindfulness book for mid-grades. I highly recommend this book. It should be in homes, libraries, schools, therapist offices etc. It is not only a fun, mindful story, but it also serve an important purpose as a book for children to help bolster their self-control, inner peace and resiliency.

Eve Costarelli

Thank you to Laurie Grossman for sending me this book. All opinions expressed are my own.

Mindfully Me Book One: It’s Always There A children’s meditation book for mindfulness, calm and happiness by Louise Shanagher and Rose Finerty is truly one of the best children’s mindfulness books that I have come across. The book is full of thoughts that pique the interest and understanding the art of mindfulness is easily accessible for children and is written into lovely, flowing rhyming sequences. The artwork is adorable. I love the textured painting juxtaposed onto photographic backgrounds and sprinkled with computer-generated flowers. It’s completely endearing!
I am excited to be able to offer a free copy of this book. Please head over to my Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/mindful_boo… for the giveaway; shipping only available in the continental US. Giveaway Ends 12/10/18.

Mindfully Me Book Two: Where Is Happy? by Louise Shanagher and Rose Finerty. The Dynamic Duo Lou Lou Rose is back at it again. They have created a second book and once again have come up with a beautiful children’s mindfulness book, both through its words and its illustrations, that promotes self-compassion, self-confidence and self-esteem in a perfectly suited for children way. Where Is Happy? encourages children to seek inner peace rather than material gain through easily relatable content written into relaxing, flowing rhyming sequences. The book is full of extra content to help teachers and parents integrate the book and its message. This book is a great read and a great social-emotional learning tool for kids!

Mindfully Me Book 3: Look Who’s Here by Louise Shanagher and Rose Finerty. Book 3 of the Mindfully Me Series is another winning title from the creative minds of Lou Lou Rose. Look Who’s Here does a great job of universalizing feelings and emotions by reinforcing the message that everyone has them and if you can take a moment to just notice them in yourself that you will be ok because self knowledge is the key to inner peace. I loved the diverse names used in the book’s lilting rhymes, making for whole lot of fun word play. This book is full of positive ways to notice and address big feelings in an engaging and identifiable way.

This series would make a perfect gift for the holidays and every day. I really enjoyed all of the books and know I will use them in my kids yoga & mindfulness classes. They are very well crafted mindfulness books for kids. They are sweet, educational and totally relatable. I especially like the language used and appreciate that it is not syrupy or cutesy, but sincere words that kids will enjoy reading and will be able to ingest. I highly recommend the whole series!

Waldo is timeless! As a matter of fact, my 17 year old son and I just went to a bookstore and when I finally found him, sprawled on the floor in a corner, he was searching for Waldo!

I love the gimmick for this new Where’s Waldo; it adds a innovative challenge to the quest. This book requires a lot of patience but I just could not give up until I had found every Waldo, Wenda, Wizard Whitebeard and Odlaw and the truly mind boggling “one character in each scene that is carrying a flashlight.” A must have for every Waldo fan, young and old! Here is a link to an introductory video for the book. Check it out for yourself!

This book would make a perfect gift for the holidays and every day. It offers not only hours, but years of entertainment.

What a fun book! This book is beautifully designed and each 2-page layout is gorgeously detailed with intricate puzzles and labyrinths that are full of ships in glass bottles, hot air balloons and a host of interlocking pipes, strings and vines that seem endless. This book will surely provide hours of engagement and can entertain and fascinate kids through adults. This is a very creative book!

This book would make a perfect gift for the holidays and every day. I absolutely love the sweet illustrations and the fun and challenging puzzles.

I am utterly in love with these intricate paper horses that literally jump off of the pages of this sweet pop-up book. Each 2-page layout has an action word that is accompanied by a gorgeously crafted pop-up horse along with a host of other farm animals and implements. The words are simple but imagination can run on-and-on within the frames. The final layout is the farm in full where each of the previously noted horses is depicted, adding a fun i-Spy element to the book.

I highly recommend this book. It is the perfect gift for the holidays and every day. This is a great book that stimulates creative thought and offers hours and hours of imaginative play.